


Hidden Variables

by Noducksinpond



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, F/M, Fake/Pretend Relationship, Implied/Referenced Underage Drinking, Mild Language, until it isn´t
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-27
Updated: 2015-02-27
Packaged: 2018-03-15 12:19:28
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,207
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3446954
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Noducksinpond/pseuds/Noducksinpond
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>He put his arm around her shoulder and she leant into him, when they came closer to the frat house. Not that she needs looking after, but it is still quite nice. Comfortable. It´s not like sparks are flying between them or anything like that, or she´s suddenly realized that she really wants to make out with him. It works for what it is though.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Hidden Variables

**Author's Note:**

  * For [QuietSeraphim](https://archiveofourown.org/users/QuietSeraphim/gifts).



# Hidden Variables

“I am not going to descend to that level,” Lydia concluded and took a sip of her now slightly cold coffee. She leant back against the wall of her dorm room, and looked down on the floor, where her best friend laid sprawled with her head on her book bag. Allison looked like she couldn´t quite bother with listening to her, but still did it. “We´re in college Ally, we´re not 12.”

“Okay, I´m just going to pretend that wasn´t the most pretentious thing you´ve ever said,” Allison replied, and sucked on her bottom lip. She was not usually scheming things but apparently, she had decided to start now. “It may be dumb, but it´s not like you got a better plan. And I can just ask him, it´s not like it´s a big deal.”

“You´re going to ask your ex-boyfriend to pretend to date me, until Jackson fucks off back to hell,” Lydia stated simply, saying it aloud just to demonstrate how incredibly ridiculous it sounded. “I don´t even give a crap about Jackson´s opinion.”

“Both of us know that that´s not the entire truth,” Allison said more seriously, and looked into her eyes. Lydia looked away as quickly she could, not quite liking the turn this conversation had taken. It had started with her shitting on her dumbass ex-boyfriend, who quite frankly belonged in the fires of hell, whose lacrosse team was visited campus for the next week, and had ended a place Lydia didn´t like.

“Besides,” Allison said with a small grin, even though she apparently got Lydia´s hint. “Me and Scott can actually be in the same room, and get along okay, unlike certain others.”

“He´ll probably say no,” Lydia said, brushed it off, and returned to her Physics book, which she had abandoned on her bed earlier that day, before she and Allison had run into Jackson. Her mood had dropped pretty much instantly, even though they hadn´t gotten into any kind of argument.

“Wait and see,” Allison replied with a smirk, already grabbing her phone from her pocket. Lydia just took another sip of her coffee.

…

It turned out that Lydia did not know Scott McCall very well.

Firstly, because he hadn´t said no to Allison´s rather weird offer, like she had thought without a shadow of a doubt he would. Allison hadn´t been surprised, which really shouldn´t have shocked Lydia the slightest. He and Allison had been dating for like 5 or 6 years, until both of them had left for college and broken it off. Of course, Allison knew what he would do.

Secondly, Scott looked a lot different from the pictures she´d seen. Lydia had never met the guy, and only seen the photos of him that Allison had from a couple of years back, when the two had been dating. Not that he suddenly had pink hair or something; he just looked a little fitter, than Lydia had thought he would. Not that he´d be entirely awful looking in the first place. “Hey,” Scott said, and the fact that he shook her hand was another thing, which caught Lydia off guard.

“Hey,” Lydia said, sounding more like a tiny schoolgirl than she´d thought, which was annoying, because Lydia was obviously better than that. She was 19 not 12 after all. Allison grinned at her, and Lydia was tempted to roll her eyes, but managed to resist that. “So I guess we should talk,” she said, and gave Allison a look. “ _Alone_.”

“I didn´t say anything,” Allison said, but she was practically already in a fit of laughter. Lydia was admittedly not surprised. Allison was a lighthearted person, always laughing, always smiling, and finding everything in the world funny. That was Allison for you.

“You didn´t have to,” Scott pointed out with a soft laugh. Then Lydia grabbed his hand, because what the hell, and then headed for the tables outside the café, they´d met at.

…

It´s a simple deal really. Scott pretends to be her boyfriend, and he gets to ask another favor of her, once Jackson has fucked off again. He said, he didn´t want that favor, but really, it was Lydia who insisted on it. He deserved something in return, because she was going to get him wrapped up in her mess. After the deal is sealed, they start talking about themselves, working out their story.

Lydia doesn´t like having any variables unaccounted for in any experiment, whether scientific or not. This is an experiment more than it is anything else, either they´ll pull this off, or she´ll manage to humiliate herself completely in front of Jackson.

Scott grew up in the same town as Allison, and he had lived with his Mom until he´d moved away to university. He had ended up playing lacrosse in his freshman year, and had in his own words, by luck, ended up as the team captain. He lives in a dorm with his best friend Stiles. He´s a pretty nice guy, definitely sweet enough, but then again he kind of had to be, given the fact Allison dated him all through High School. He likes video games and dogs. Therefore, when he finishes Lydia tells him about herself.

She lived in the opposite end of California, with a couple of workaholic parents. She had always been incredibly smart, and done first year university classes before she´d even graduated high school. Scott is a little impressed with that, and Lydia smirked, satisfied with herself. She briefly explained her history with Jackson, after all that was kind of relevant to the experiment.

Their drinks arrived after the first ten minutes of talk, and the waitress sent both of them, something that assembled a knowing smile. Lydia just replied by taking a sip of coffee, and continuing to listen to Scott´s answers. An hour later, their coffee was drunken and they´d run out of things to ask each other. Once they rise from the table, the deal is completely sealed.

As they leave the small kind of crappy place, Scott takes her hand, and surprisingly enough it feels like this could work.

…

“Things went well?” Allison asked, once she got back to their dorm room later that night to find Lydia going through her extra math work. Despite her excellent grades, the professor had still looked at her in disbelief when she´d asked for it. Lydia had insisted she needed a challenge, and well math was simple. Despite the fact that Lydia could do any analysis or experiment just fine, she liked math for its simplicity, it had a result and a specific way to get to it.

“Yeah,” Lydia answered without looking up from her papers. “Scott´s a nice enough guy, it is probably going to work out just fine.”

“Just that?” Allison dropped off her work out bag, and looked at Lydia with something looking a lot disbelief.

“What did you expect?” Lydia asked, actually turning in her chair to face Allison. Scott was nice, excellent lacrosse captain, and okay looking. Okay looking was maybe a little bit of an understatement, but it was the only descriptor Lydia could find. “He´s definitely a decent guy, and for some reason he is also nice enough to do this for me. I´m not complaining.”

“Maybe something like, he´s kind of cute,” Allison suggested to which Lydia rolled her eyes.

“Should I tell Lahey that you´re not completely over your high school sweetheart, or do you want to dump him yourself?” Lydia asked, leaning against the back of the chair with a raised eyebrow, referring to her best friend´s co-teacher for her self-defense class. The two both liked each other, but neither of them seemed to be able to realize it, no matter how many long looks they sent in the other´s direction.

“Isaac is not my boyfriend!” Allison protested, and looked like she was about to throw a pillow after Lydia. She just smirked instead. This wasn´t the first time she´d brought this up, or that any other of Allison´s friends had for that matter. “Just because I teach a self-defense class with him, doesn´t mean I want to date him.”

“Keep telling yourself that, sweetheart,” Lydia said under her breath, as she turned back to her math work.

…

Scott is easy to be around; that is the conclusion Lydia comes to, once they started studying together a few days later. Granted the library is probably literally the last place Jackson would show up on campus, but they might as well get used to being around each other, and Scott could use some help on his Chem homework. They sit quite close together, even though it´s still not really what she would call relationship kind of close. Not that that´s a problem.

Eventually the studying starts rubbing off in other situations. Lydia shows up at lacrosse practice, they shared lunch together and by Friday, Allison admits they´re doing a decent job, as Scott leaves their dorm. However to Lydia´s disappointment they don´t actually run into Jackson during the week, that´s why they are doing this after all.

But Scott keeps being a part of her day, and well it´s nice. Scott´s a good guy, and if Allison had a too optimistic outlook on life, Scott is actually even worse. According to Allison, it rubs off on Lydia, but when she brings it up Lydia deflects it, and returns to her readings with a small smile. But a little part of her is willing to admit that it is nice, literally nothing seems to be able to beat him down.

The highlight of their scheme comes Thursday night, when they finish their studying at Lydia´s dorm room, and Scott is about to leave just as Isaac Lahey comes by to get Allison for their self-defense class. Not the one they teach, just the one they take together. Either they´re hiding something from her, or she really needs to slap both of them.  Scott gives her a quick kiss on the top of her head, a warm hug and a see you tomorrow sweetie, which is standard procedure when other people are around. She returns his goodbye, and he sends a nod in Allison´s direction, before he is off.

“I´ll be there in a sec Isaac,” Allison says, before she shuts the door to the dorm again to get her stuff. That leaves Lydia and Isaac alone in the hallway, both of them shuffling awkwardly from foot to foot.

“Is the lacrosse captain your new boyfriend?” Lahey asked with his arms crossed, a question that had clearly been on his lip since before Scott left. Their few and short conversations were never quite natural, probably given the fact that neither of them had really bothered getting to know the other one.

“Yep,” Lydia said, and it actually felt natural, then she looked up at him and smiled slightly. Isaac made a face at her. “We´ve been going out more or less for 3 weeks, just kept

“You´re aiming high Martin,” he said under his breath, and Lydia felt a small sting of hurt, before she quickly skipped past that and rolled her eyes at him.

“Please, I´m still smarter and more popular than you,” she reminded him with a small nod of her head, and met his eyes. “Now, shouldn´t you go back to making googly eyes at Allison?”

Isaac blushed, and Lydia knew she´d hit a sore spot. She smirked at him and headed back into the dorm room.

…

He put his arm around her shoulder and she leant into him, when they came closer to the frat house. Not that she needs looking after, but it is still quite nice. Comfortable. It´s not like sparks are flying between them or anything like that, or she´s suddenly realized that she really wants to make out with him.

“That your girlfriend, McCall?” the slightly drunk guy at the door asks. He stinks of vodka 12 miles away, and Lydia wrinkles her nose a little.

“Yeah she is,” Scott said simply, and it sounded just as natural as when she´d said the same to Isaac the night before. It shouldn´t really have surprised her, this thing had fallen almost impossibly easy to both of them.

“Come on in,” the guy slurred and managed to almost trip over his own legs, unsurprisingly. “Don´t want any losers around, but the more chicks the merrier.” Scott rolled his eyes, but otherwise ignored him, and Lydia was reminded of the fact that he was actually pretty sober. There was probably a reason behind it, but Lydia didn´t ask. Scott didn´t exactly seem guarded the same way she was, but she still figured he´d tell her if he wanted to do that.

The party was huge, just like Lydia had expected it to be. Scott grabbed both of them a drink, as they headed into the mass of college students. They danced a bit, she had a drink with a friend she ran into, before Scott´s friend Stiles pulled him away to do some shots, and Lydia was left alone in the hallway. She took a long sip of her vodka and cola.

“Hey Lydia,” Jackson said with the usual condescending edge to his words, and Lydia turned around with crossed arms to glare at him. No Allison to drag her away from that ticking time bomb this time.

“What do you want?” she asked, rage boiling underneath the surface. The 5 drinks she´d had definitely didn´t help either. Because Lydia may be good at keeping her temper locked down normally, but the same couldn´t necessarily be said, when she´d had drinks. However something in the back of her head tried and remind her that Jackson and his two drunk and dumb sidekicks really weren´t worth it. “No freshman girls dumb enough for you tonight?”

“Nice to know, you´re still as much of a bitch, as you´ve always been,” Jackson retorted with a cocky smirk.

“You´re a shithead,” she bit back. The problem with Jackson was that he knew her too well; if this argument continued he´d manage to hit some buttons, she´d prefer weren´t pushed. If she let him anyway. He took a few steps towards her, and Lydia moved away from him. One of his buddies had gotten distracted by something, and the other just looked at them with a dumb grin.

“At least I´m not a pathetic chick who went to a frat party by herself,” Jackson said coldly, and Lydia would have been just about to punch him, had it not been from someone else who grabbed her wrist, spun her around towards him and with a roughly 5 seconds warning, he kissed her. She was almost about to push whoever it was away, when she realized who it was. Scott. Scott had just kissed her out of the blue! That wasn´t part of the deal, or at least it hadn´t been until now.

But before Lydia could come to any rational conclusions, Scott let her go again, and she found herself almost missing the touch. But just almost. “Hey,” he said, and grinned at her. Lydia smiled back, primarily because she was too surprised to do anything else. And because now that the reality of the situation was dawning at her, she realized that kiss had actually felt really nice. Why hadn´t that been part of the deal up until now?

“I thought you were doing shots,” Lydia said with a pointed look.

“I was,” he said. “But Stiles got carried a bit away, so I´m getting him home in a bit. You coming along?” Lydia hadn´t exactly talked much to Scott´s best friend, but somehow she didn´t find it particularly hard to picture.

“In a second, this thing is kind of boring,” Lydia said. Scott gave her a pat on her shoulder, and went to get Stiles from somewhere in the house. Lydia turned on her heel to look at Jackson, and god was it a face worth looking at for once. Because he looked more than slightly shell shocked, and Lydia smirked victoriously.

“You were saying?”

…

“Are you okay?” he asked, after they´ve walked for 10 minutes or so. Lydia looked up at him for the first time, since they left the party, and set Stiles off at the two guys´ dorm.

“I´m fine,” she assured him sharply, even if she hadn´t been, she wouldn´t have told him. But yelling at Jackson and Scott kissing her like that, it had surprisingly enough evened itself out a little. Made her feel a little better than she had.

“You don´t look entirely fine,” he said, offering her his jacket. She took it, her fingers brushing over his a little longer than what was probably necessary. But his hands were nice and warm so fuck it.

“Well, even if you were right, which you aren´t, you don´t have to worry about me,” Lydia answered, maybe a little too defensively. Scott looked a little taken aback by that. Lydia didn´t need him to fuss about her, she could manage just fine by herself. She always had after all.

“Sorry, I just like looking out for people. Makes me feel helpful,” he said. His hand moved to brush some of the hair, which had fallen into her eyes away. Lydia´s eyes locked with his, and it suddenly felt like all the air left her lungs. That was until Scott quietly dipped down to kiss her, and let air back into her lungs. Logically that wasn´t possible since humans breathed out CO2 but Lydia was willing to sacrifice logic for this one, along with hatred for cringe worthy clichés of course.

Her hands cupped his chin, and Scott´s arms moved to pull her closer to him, and once Lydia recovered from the initial surprise, for the second time that night, she let him, almost let herself melt against him. It was still a quick kiss, but softer than before. Once they parted, Scott leant his forehead against hers, almost as if he was expecting her to yell at him, and Lydia definitely felt something. But it wasn´t that.

“Scott, no one is watching,” she said quietly. He hadn´t exactly kissed her at any other point during the week, except in front of Jackson. Lydia hated when she couldn´t solve an equation. He laughed softly, and Lydia couldn´t help smiling. She didn´t open her eyes though, not sure what she would see on his face.

“Yeah,” he said. “Kind of knew that already.”

Lydia smiled softly, as realization dawned on her. Then she kissed him again.


End file.
